Progress

Introduction / History

The Banchada people of India's central state of Madhya Pradesh have a very low literacy rate. Traditionally their women were prostitutes, but now they have adopted the profession of drum beating and agricultural labor. Some of them work for the government. Child labor is very common among them.

When a woman is married, she wears a ring on her toe rather than her finger. The eldest Banchada son succeeds the father as the head of the family. Women are active in their economic decisions. They speak a form of Hindi that is influenced by the less prominent Malvi language. There are about 19,000 of them.